Weaving Secret Things
by Aranya Ver'Sarn
Summary: Part One of one of Aranya's favorite accomplishments as an arcanist. Madame Rariv'sha Muerte had picked Aranya's brain with questions about methods of magical defenses. A mage like Arcanist Ver'Sarn does so love to stretch her creativity in her work, and always makes her services worth every copper you spend on her.


Madame Rariv'sha Muerte had picked Aranya's brain with questions about methods of magical defenses, what was feasible, what was the trade-off between what it took to construct it versus what it would take to break it down. Primary concerns that came up were how such a system could be sustained with power, and how it could remain hidden.

Immediately Aranya thought of the self-sustaining runestone system that she had done for Sunspire Port, but she already knew that there was far too little chance of her ever being able to pull off a stunt like procuring quartz from the heart of Deepholm again. The Stone Lords had allowed it _once,_ it was unwise to push their graces. And yet, the inspiration that they came from - the runestone monoliths of Eversong Woods - still presented an interesting track of thought.

The monoliths were inscribed with the runes that accomplished their never-ceasing purpose, yet the tremendous _power_ that was needed to accomplish that purpose was drawn _not_ from the rune patterns themselves - as many spells and rituals could - but from an external source: the Sunwell. It was why one of the monoliths had failed from the siege of the Scourge. It was why the burning crystals, and constant recharging of the monoliths, had been needed while the Sunwell was gone.

But while a source of power could be anything that the madame desired - a burning crystal, a bound demon, a soul prison, an ethereal mana-reactor - there was still the matter of detection and concealment. All runes derived their existence from some ley-pattern that also existed in the world, which meant that even if the arcane glyphs they were formed into were dangerous enough to make trying to break through or undo them unwise, even if their resonance was made so subtle that almost any soul would be none the wiser of their existence, there was still a chance that someone sensitive to the magic flows of this world could detect them.

Madame Muerte wondered if there could be a solution for this.

* * *

 _Arcanist Aranya Ver'Sarn rubbed her hands together and looked off at nothing for a moment, then sipped her drink again, looking_ _ **very hard**_ _at whatever that nothing was._ _Then she broke into a brilliant smile._ _"It could work if the designs are not of this world," she said. "See, when the first Alliance went to Outland after the orcs, the world was torn apart, hanging in the Nether, as it is now. But through the Nether, connected to all Alliance had no need to study new runes, they were still connected to their own. And no one, not even the Scryers, has attempted any project to study the altered rune patters of Outland since then, if any remain stable and unshifting."_ _With a little investigating, such runes would only confound anyone sensitive to them, IF they could even sense them, with the design source originating from the other side of the Nether."_

* * *

To say that Rariv'sha Muerte was pleased by such an idea would have been a gross understatement. Both the desertborn and the arcanist were thoroughly delighted by the thought of such an innovation, and what it could do for the madame.

And so Aranya's time in Outland was arranged…

Spires of jagged rock jutted like quills into a sky that was ribboned with ever-warping flows of chaotic energy. The dry, scrubby, maze-like landscape of the Blade's Edge Mountains was not as stable a region as Nagrand, Zangarmarsh, or Terokkar Forest, but it offered many a remote place for someone to work undisturbed by prying eyes.

If Aranya were to be very honest, this kind of task was once of the closest things to communion with celestial bliss for her. Syncing her awareness, her senses, every thread of her body and soul, with the flow and ebb of the energy that wove the world, the stars, everything. Matching the pulse of her blood to the subtle pulses of magic in the ground and in the air.

Was it any wonder that she was meant for sorcery?

 _So many_ patterns shifted and changed in this blasted world, some barely even forming before falling apart, it was dizzying. But there were a relative few that remained stable, even when the elf-woman made more aggressive interactions with them.

Forming the runes into glyphs that would serve Rariv'sha Muerte's needs was turning out to be quite the interesting experiment.

Aranya had donned her four crystal Nethersoul rings, using the power of the ether-lighting she had trapped within them* to power the glyphs for testing. Some runes simply proved to be too volatile together to work into a reliable arcane glyph, a few of them creating small explosions. Others somehow refused to interact with each other at all, and operated separately rather than create a harmonious design together. But the ones that came together and held as Aranya needed them to - hiding a small rock, or vaporizing an intrusive ground lizard - _those_ were marked down in the arcanist's research journal with particular care.

A half-guilty sigh escaped the mage's lips, tucking a strand of her darksome locks behind an elegantly pointed ear. _Technically,_ as one of the Scryers, she was bound to archive her newfound knowledge in the Seer's Library, in Shattrath. Yet, seeing as how this was neither sanctioned nor _funded_ by the Scryers - despite being done within their jurisdiction - she would only be _bending_ protocol by keeping it to herself… Sharply bending it… Whatever.

This was _hers._ Funded by Rariv'sha Muerte. To herself and her client would go the benefit.

"I wanna see another one, Minn'da!" Valéria cheered as the last of the arcane runes that Aranya would be testing for the time being flared and then softened into a gently pulsing glow.

The grown Thalassian woman smiled at her little girl. "That's all I need investigate for now, _alah'dal,"**_ she said. "But that's not to say I won't look into _more_ after I've done the work I was asked for."

The tiny blonde giggled as she was picked up by her mother and swung around in a hug. "Can we play Hearthstone when we get home? I really wanna play Hearthstone!"

"Absolutely!" Aranya answered.

"Don't let me win," insisted Valéria needlessly. "I wanna beat you myself, fair and square!"

Aranya could only grin.

* * *

 _*It nearly killed her to do that. Don't ever try that shit at home, kids._

 _** Alah = light; dal = star(s); alah'dal = starlight, in Thalassian._


End file.
